The Tigers have been very patient with Brandon Inge. That time is over. Inge couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag. He'll get his chance in spring training, but a sub .200 batting average during spring training will be his ticket off of the Tiger roster.

Patient?
Not really, they've taken steps to get rid of Inge they just haven't worked out.
If Rayburn's defensive skills were anything above worthless Inge would have been gone a long time ago.
They sent Inge down to the hens and brought in Betimit last year only to watch him whiff just as much as Inge and let balls into the outfield that would have been routine snags for Brandon.
Cabrera was brought in to get rid of Inge at third four years ago, only to be sent to first base.
They haven't been patient, anybody that comes close defensively at the hot corner gets rid of Inge they just haven't found him yet.

Ryan Raburn career BA- .269. Brandon Inge career BA- .235. Both have had some pop in their bat at some point. The difference is that's now for Raburn and Inge, at least last year, pretty much lost all of his.

I don't see what people see in Inge. So he had range. He'd also botch the routine play, make errors on throws that just about anyone else would make just fine, and strike out just about every time he was up in a clutch situation. Raburn's defense is terrible, yes. And he can't hit between April and June. But from June through the end of the year he's actually one of the better hitters in baseball. Seriously. Check out his splits. In the first half he's a .228 hitter(which still isn't far off of Inge's career average). In the 2nd half he's a .300 hitter. Once he heats up he's dangerous.

I'm not the biggest fan of the defensive arrangement that's going to happen, but my gut feeling is it'll be fine. They'll get to the routine balls anyway, and the offense will make up for what they don't do. The only pitcher I'd worry about is Porcello. A sinkerballer with that infield defense will probably struggle big time.

If the Tigers had not been patient with Inge, he would've been gone 4 or 5 years ago. They were especially patient with him last year when they designated him for assignment, no other team picked him up, he took some up and coming player's spot in Toledo, and then they brought him back in September, hoping for better things from him. If that's not being patient, I don't know what is.

If Betemit had played better Inge would have stayed in Toledo.
They brought him in to replace Inge not sub for him while he was doing what essentially became a rehab assignment.
He hit around .270 when he came back up and played well in the post-season too, so the better things happened.
Betemit looked like an improvement in every aspect from payroll to batting average but it didn't work out as expected. Shouldn't take much to keep a guy who was hitting .180(or so) buried in the minors but he didn't do it.

Heard a comment today about Inge. The person had a picture of Brandon Inge and let it drop to the floor. When the picture hit the floor the person said, "Well look at that. That's the first time Inge has hit something in two years."

I heard last summer that Inge was having particular problems because he had mono (maybe during spring training) and tried to play through it. Any time I have seen someone with mono, they couldn't function, let alone attempt to play MLB. Granted, a career BA of .230 isn't particularly exciting, but mono might explain last year's .180 and no power.